Family history records
The Royal Mail Archive holds a wealth of material useful to family historians researching postal ancestors. Information about Post Office employees can be found in several archive classes:
- POST 1: Treasury Correspondence
- POST 58: Staff Nomination and Appointment
- POST 59: Staff Establishment Books
- POST 35: Minutes between the Secretary and Postmaster General
- POST 36: Irish Minutes
- POST 37: Scottish Minutes
- POST 38: England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland Minutes
If you want to find out more about tracing a relative who worked for the Post Office, our Family History Research section provides in-depth information on what records we have to help you, case studies detailing step-by-step how to search the records and more.
In our collection...
Appointments
Archive class POST 58 contains appointment books which provide a register of all employees from 1831 to 1956. They are a useful source of information about family history.
See examples of our appointments records...
Pensions & Gratuities
The archive also has pensions and gratuities records for Post Office staff up
to 1959 and are contained in POST 1.
See examples of our pensions & gratuities records...
Post Office Magazine
Post Office staff magazines, such as St Martin’s-Le-Grand and Courier
are held here at The Royal Mail Archive in archive class POST 92.
These provide an insight into what life was like working for the Post Office,
they are a useful
source of information to family historians.
See examples of Post Office Magazines...
Access
The best way to see all our material on family history is to visit The Royal Mail Archive in Freeling House. See our Visiting section for more details. A few of the records are yet to be catalogued but most have been processed. You can search for them in our online catalogue. To protect original material some records may be on microfilm. Most of the Post Office Magazines are also available on open access in our Search Room.
